Page 24 - CNC West Oct-Nov 2021

RC INDUSTRIES LIFE IN A CARTESIAN COORDINATE SYSTEM
Anaheim, Ca. based RC Industries was founded on the idea that a manufacturing company should provide more than just machined
goods to customers. They provide full-circle product development services from concept design, creating prototype parts, to assembly, and delivery of high-quality manufactured products. “We are honored to contribute our unique full-circle services in many divisions within the manufacturing industry,” tells Rob Champlin, founder and president of RC Industries. “Our specialty is hard to machine, tight tolerance, high complexity parts for aerospace, automation, automotive, avionics, electronics, and medical devices. We have 20,000sq.ft. filled with 25+ 3, 4, and 5 axis CNC machining centers. And we are IS09001 and AS9100 certified.”
Rob Champlin got his start in the industry like many others, his mom found him a job. Rob was welding trailer hitches in Corona, Ca and looking for more part time work to fill his schedule. “My mom was employed by a forging company at that time,” tells Rob. “She asked one of the machine shops they did business with if there were any part time openings. The answer was no, but full time, 50 hours a week was on offer.” Being closer to home offset a slight pay cut, and Rob unknowingly began a career in manufacturing. “In high school I needed another elective and took auto shop over typing,” laughs Rob. “I didn’t think I would need that skill any more than
I thought I needed sophomore geometry. Now here I am with essentially the same job since 1986 and I type everything and live a lot of my life within a Cartesian Coordinate System.”
He was a quick learner and within the first two years all the hard and critical jobs were going to Rob. Sadly, four years after Rob started his new career the company’s owner passed away. Rob ran the business for the widow for another four years before buying it off her and rebranding to RC Industries. “I was using the RC Industries name for all my side projects,” tells Rob. “It just made sense to continue on with it. That was 1994. We were mostly machining aluminum forgings back then. We still do, but we’ve grown a lot as a company and with our capabilities.” As the need for higher precision and automated manufacturing presented itself, Rob upgraded his equipment from conventional machines to 3-axis machining, then to 4-axis, and now 5-axis. “With each improvement, we’ve positioned ourselves higher and higher up the food chain as a leading provider of precision machined parts, tooling, forgings, castings, and hog-outs,” touts Rob.
For Rob and RC Industries 5-axis is everything. Admittedly If he were to start over, he would do it with a 5 axis Haas and a small dovetailing/second op machine. “Right off the bat you save money on tooling and fixturing with a setup like that,” explains Rob. “I put a dovetail on
22 www.CNC-West.com
CNC WEST October/November 2021